Supervisors relocate press room in Marin Civic Center shuffle

After serving as a home base for journalists for a half century, the press room at the Marin Civic Center will close this month to become a conference room for county supervisors.

The press will be relocated down the hallway to Room 322, a 200-square-foot space with two workstations.

The original 510-square-foot press room was specifically designated for the media by Aaron Green, the Frank Lloyd Wright protege who took over Civic Center construction details after Wright's death, according to the late Independent Journal editor Jack Craemer. The IJ has maintained a news bureau in it from the beginning.

The room, marked with a sign on the door proclaiming it the "Board of Scoops," also once served as a base for reporters from the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, Pacific Sun, Bay City News Service, Marin's weeklies and other local and regional media outlets. A young Will Hearst worked there for a time.

Reporters dwindled as news organizations shriveled. Technology also has allowed reporters to be more mobile. The IJ and a Chronicle reporter currently work out of the press room at the Civic Center.

Officials years ago closed a press room in the Hall of Justice, converting it into a sheriff's lounge. But repeated efforts over the years to move the press room in the Administration Building, situated steps from the supervisors' chambers, were blocked by Supervisor Hal Brown after media protests. Brown, who sometimes referred to it as "the people's room," died last year.

Supervisor Steve Kinsey, the outgoing board president who spearheaded the press room move, said that "nothing remains the same." Kinsey said it was important for the "Civic Center to remain a living building, serving the contemporary needs of our community." He added that "while smaller, the (new) press room will continue to provide media outlets with a convenient location from which to report on county government activities, something our entire board considers useful."

County Administrator Matthew Hymel cited a need for "more meeting room space for the supervisors to better engage with our residents and community groups." He added that the county "will continue to provide free space to the press, but the space is being reduced to reflect the usage in recent years."

"Given modern technology which allows remote access, the press room has been under-utilized for the past several years," Hymel said.

Supervisor Katie Rice, the veteran political aide who stepped into Brown's shoes, said the move makes sense. "It is a relocation of the press room to a smaller space still in close proximity to board chambers," she said. "I don't think it will inhibit or compromise the press' ability to cover the work that goes on here at the Civic Center at all."

Incoming board president Judy Arnold said the move came, "as I understand it, because the board has long needed another conference room for meetings with the public." Another room used by the board "is almost always scheduled, and supervisors are left trying to crowd people in their offices."

The room into which the press is being moved can be expanded somewhat if the need arises and the county "will monitor the use and demands of the new press room and adapt as necessary," she said.

"The closure of the historic press room marks the end of an era at the Civic Center. Many important Marin stories were uncovered, reported and written in that room over the past 50 years," IJ Executive Editor Doug Bunnell said. "The new smaller press room is a sobering reminder of the transformation the newspaper industry is experiencing. The IJ remains committed to the public's right to know and covering Marin's county government."

Officials will dip into a $500,000 "office modernization" account to cover the $30,000 remodeling and relocation expense.

The decision to move the press room was made without any public discussion and finalized over the holidays.